On August 05, 2021, SHENZHEN WOER HEAT-SHRINKABLE, MATERIAL CO., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as the "Applicant") entrusted CENFO to apply for the trademark "" in Class 24 (hereinafter referred to as the " appl. trademark"). "The CNIPA issued a notice of refusal of the applied trademark on November 22, 2021.

 The applicant entrusted CENFO to response the official action within the statutory period. we stated that the appl. trademark "" and the cited trademark "" are not similar in terms of trademark composition elements, pronunciation, meaning, overall appearance and visual effect.

After examination, the CNIPA held that the appl. trademark and the trademark No. 15798737 "W and Figure" (hereinafter referred to as the cited trademark) cited are still distinguishable as a whole. The appl. trademark and the cited trademark do not constitute similar trademarks used on the same or similar goods. In accordance with the provisions of Article 28 of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, an application for registration of a trademark on the goods under review shall be given preliminary examination and approval.

Comments of CENFO

The judgment of trademark similarity is the result of comprehensive consideration of various factors, among which, the overall appearance and popularity of the trademark are important considerations, and the ultimate criterion is whether the co-existence of the trademark will lead to misunderstanding and confusion of the relevant public. The key to determining whether the appl. trademark and the cited trademark in this case constitute similarity lies in the differences in their trademark composition elements, pronunciation, meaning, overall appearance and visual effect.

The appl. trademark "" is a combination of graphics and the English words "WOER", the distinctive part is the English words "WOER" .It is the phonetic form of the applicant's name "WOER", which constitutes the only correspondence with the applicant.

The cited trademark "" is a purely graphic trademark which is its core, the overall meaning points to the letter "W".

In summary, the appl. mark and the cited mark are not similar in terms of trademark composition elements, pronunciation, meaning, overall appearance and visual effect. In addition, the appl. trademark has already enjoyed a certain degree of popularity through publicity, promotion and use, and the coexistence of the appl. trademark and the cited trademark will not cause confusion and misunderstanding between consumers and the origin of the goods, so that the CNIPA supported the applicant's reasons for review and made a decision on the preliminary examination of the applicant's trademark, thus facilitating the normal promotion, publicity and use of the applicant's brand in the market.

Source: Website of CENFO